Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Cold Game (section)

===Part 7===

'''(the_chariot)

After returning to the university hospital’s front lobby, Mikoto’s group sat on a random bench and looked over at a poster on a nearby column.

“Neat. You can use cellphones in hospitals these days.”

“They still ban them around the operation rooms and examination rooms. But who was it that claimed cellphone signals would damage medical equipment anyway?”

They needed to organize what information they had.

“Oh? Onee-sama, you still aren’t using a smartphone?”

“I’m attached to this flip phone. And it can use the internet just fine.”

They attached rubber straps to their multipurpose mobile devices and positioned the screens in front of their eyes like goggles.

The images presented there were reconstructed using the footage taken by other cameras. In their case, they used the cameras on each other’s phones.

Mikoto looked around.

“Huh? Is this our classroom???”

“I chose that setting. The classrooms and gyms of prestigious schools like Tokiwadai and Nagatenjouki are pretty popular backgrounds.”

Uiharu must have already set everything up for them. Several files were pasted to the blackboard and entries were linked by red and blue lines of light.

Also…

“Hm? Saten-san?”

“Hi.”

Someone was here who should not have been.

She must have been sitting on a chair or sofa in the courthouse waiting room, but that data was not here and she looked like she was sitting in empty air with a smile on her face.

Mikoto widened her eyes in surprise.

“Should you really be doing this? Using your phone might give away your location. If it gives a reading from within the courthouse…”

“Oh, I borrowed a phone and web camera from the prosecutor, so it doesn’t matter if this phone’s location is discovered.”

…That sounded like it would cause other problems, but the trial was stopped for the time being. Since Saten was a witness instead of the defendant or accuser, she may not have been as strictly monitored.

“Ho, ho. Uiharu-san, what kind of technology is this? I see it can reproduce things perfectly even down here.”

“Gyawah!! Do you have to look there even in VR, Saten-san!?”

“…In the courthouse, wouldn’t it look like she’s just crawling around on her own?”

“That no one is getting after her for that motion may be all the proof we need that she is being kept safe,” said Shirai.

The pervert was not bothered by the perverted action.

At any rate, Shirai Kuroko got down to business.

“Now, we went over this with an expert, but the thread only feels more tangled.”

“At least we have a clear view of what hurdles we have to overcome. It’s no longer a tangled mess of video cables, is what I’m saying.”

They began by sharing their information, including what Saten had inside the courthouse.

According to Asajimo Mebuki, the low-temperature chemistry expert, melting the thick ice to remove Asajimo Saemi would be a gamble. And even if the ice did melt well, the large wound on the girl’s back would open up and she would hemorrhage blood.

The standard method of closing a wound was to wrap it with bandages or sew it up with thread, but they could not do that while she was frozen.

They needed to treat the wound before melting the ice, but they had to melt the ice before treating the wound.

It was a lot like locking your key inside an auto-locking hotel room.

Mikoto viewed the documents covering the blackboard and gave a frustrated sigh.

“…I knew it was going to be bad, but this is even more twisted than I was expecting.”

“But looking at it in reverse, Loophole, aka Innai Chigiri, may have actually been afraid.”

“What do you mean, Uiharu?”

“I mean, since he included the wound on her back as insurance, he must have considered the possibility of her being unfrozen from cold sleep, right? So there might really be a way of safely unfreezing her.”

Incidentally, the simple VR using a mobile device was not completely immersive. Mikoto’s group could still hear the noise and chatter of the hospital lobby.

Within that was the lobby’s large TV continuing to discuss the top trending terms on social media. People made a fuss about TV going into decline and the internet rising to the forefront, but since the TV programs were not making anything original and simply relying on topics and videos from the internet, it felt like they had just given up resisting it.

And those people were holding the following discussion while taking no responsibility for their statements:

“The top trending term has been updated. Oh, what’s this? We have a very interesting topic in first place: the accusations against Boy A might be false? What does this mean, Sensei!?”

“According to those in the know, a new email from Loophole has arrived at various news organizations. Needless to say, Boy A could not have done this since he is in the courthouse.”

“I see. But couldn’t that be set to a timer like is often done with blog posts these days?”

“You can tell when these things are done on a timer, but there is no sign of that here. This is no more than online speculation, but the consensus seems to be headed toward the idea that the true criminal is someone else.”

Mikoto could not believe her ears.

“W-wait, what is going on!?”

“Ah, Misaka-san!?”

Saten tried to stop her, but Mikoto removed the cellphone affixed with a rubber strap.

The real scene of the hospital lobby filled her vision, but nothing really changed.

The irresponsible content was still coming from the TV.

“I can’t believe them…”

“What they are saying is awful, but it does seem to be true.”

Shirai and Uiharu also removed their mobile devices. Rules against mobile usage in hospitals had been relaxed in recent times, so Uiharu pulled out a mobile device resembling a handheld game system and gathered information from a browser.

“Someone claiming to be Loophole is making posts to video sites and message boards as well: ‘I have no words for that poor, foolish Boy A, but I will continue to commit my crimes as before. I have no intention of forcing all responsibility on him and making a clean escape.’ …Quite a few people think this person is the real criminal and Boy A being held in the courthouse has been falsely accused.”

“B-but! This is just on a computer or with a program, right? If he had set this to post with a time delay, Innai Chigiri could be the one sending these messages, couldn’t he!?”

“At the very least, this does not appear to be a simple timer.”

“Innai Chigiri? We still don’t know what his power is, so could he be using that?”

“I don’t know how rare his power is, but using a unique power would be like leaving a calling card. And none of Loophole’s crimes have shown any trace of an esper power being used,” explained Uiharu. “But Loophole does have a lot of followers online. So even if this isn’t him, it is possible a follower of his is posting these videos and messages and the others are agreeing with it to suck up to him. The change was too soon after the news came out and I doubt the trending word could have naturally risen quite that quickly.”

…If there was a direct connection between Loophole and his followers, he could even order them to rid him of the troublesome witness.

Not even Anti-Skill or Judgment knew how many followers he had in all, so it would be almost impossible to fully ensure someone’s safety.

The only remaining option was to swiftly divulge Loophole’s crimes, reveal that there never was a perfect crime, and disillusion his followers. They had to prove that his wicked charisma was a sham.

Mikoto glanced over at the lobby TV and placed a hand on her slender chin.

She set aside the fact that the producers had given up on making anything of their own and were entirely reliant on the internet.

“If the followers did this all on their own, then wouldn’t it be outside of Loophole’s own expectations?”

If they spread the false idea of a “true criminal” and that was easily revealed to be a lie, then the suspicion against Innai Chigiri would only grow. Was this situation actually working against him?

“The effect seems too big for that.”

“The message supposedly from Loophole may have started out as something his followers invented, but it seems to have gathered the interest of completely unrelated people now. It’s a lot like how people will line up for a restaurant they know nothing about just because they see it has a line.”

“…So this wasn’t just a spontaneous occurrence. Should we assume the email message and masked video were prepared in advance?” Mikoto thought for a moment. “Maybe this was a form of insurance. Innai Chigiri could have left his more trusted followers with this material and instructed them to start distributing it once they received some kind of signal.”

“Since he wants to have the case dismissed before the issue of guilty or not guilty even comes into play, pressure is what he should want most. If this grows into a social phenomenon, it will be all the harder to keep the trial going.”

“B-but how would he give a signal!?” asked Shirai. “He’s being confined and monitored and they won’t allow minor suspects in front of the cameras. He won’t be allowed to so much as touch a mobile device or computer. Even if he had his followers waiting, he has no way of hitting the activation switch!”

“Could he have borrowed a phone from someone like Saten-san did?”

“I think the actual defendant would be treated differently from her.”

Mikoto sighed, but something about Uiharu’s comment gnawed at her.

“…Could the trial going into recess have been the signal? No, that introduces the risk of it being triggered by some unexpected turn of events. I’m not an expert at psychological warfare like that stubborn #5, but I’m sure that delicate give-and-take is important. So you wouldn’t use a method that prevents you from putting on the brakes if necessary. If you want to effectively attack in waves while adjusting to the situation, you would want to give direct instructions.”

Loophole, aka Innai Chigiri, could only contact so many people.

Mikoto did not want to think a follower had worked their way into the security personnel. It was the higher ups that decided who was assigned to that position, so they would have no way of knowing if they would be assigned to Innai Chigiri’s security today. It seemed unlikely he would include a gamble like that in his insurance.

It would have to be someone he knew would be by his side no matter what happened.

Which meant…

“…His lawyer,” said Mikoto. “Tsujinaka Kyouka, was it? He whispers something to her and she uses her phone to call up his followers. That allows him to get his instructions out there.”

Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari of Judgment frowned at that.

“If that came to light, she would more than just lose her license to practice law. No matter how clever she might be, I doubt she would go that far.”

“And cell phone anonymity is not as convenient as it might seem,” added Uiharu.

“Then maybe she isn’t using her phone. She just has to use a payphone instead. There are some in the courthouse…but she might be overheard there, so I guess she would head outside. Uiharu-san, can you check for the location of any payphones near the courthouse?”

“Y-yes, I can do that.”

“But even if you can find who the call was made to, you can’t know who made the call, can you?” asked Shirai. “Even if we have the call data, it will not be enough to corner that Tsujinaka Kyouka lawyer.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”